{"id":747483,"date":"2013-04-20T20:50:18","date_gmt":"2013-04-21T00:50:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/paidcontent.org\/?p=228067"},"modified":"2013-04-20T20:50:18","modified_gmt":"2013-04-21T00:50:18","slug":"the-dramatic-decline-of-the-philadelphia-inquirer-newsroom-captured-in-photos","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.com\/index\/747483","title":{"rendered":"The dramatic decline of the Philadelphia Inquirer newsroom captured in photos"},"content":{"rendered":"

Newspapers were very much in the news this week, in the wake of the Boston bombings and the manhunt for the escaped suspect<\/a>: many cheered the news coverage of the Boston Globe<\/em>, in part because of the paper’s shrunken newsroom and the fact that it is up for sale. There are many other newspapers suffering the same fate, including the Philadelphia Inquirer<\/em>, which went bankrupt in 2009 and was sold last year for $55 million<\/a> — or about 50 percent less than it sold for in 2010 and more than 85 percent below what it sold for in 2006.<\/p>

Photographer Will Steacy has released a somewhat painful photo essay that shows the paper’s dramatic decline. As Wired<\/em> magazine describes<\/a>, Steacy’s father worked at the Inquirer<\/em> for almost 30 years until he and many others were downsized. The shrinking of the Inquirer<\/em>‘s staff was just a microcosm of the much larger decline of the U.S. newspaper industry as a whole, with the number of full-time<\/a> media employees now at its lowest level since 1978.<\/p>

\"Inquirer<\/a><\/p>

After its bankruptcy, The Inquirer<\/em> moved its newsroom from the massive, 87-year-old, 526,000-square-foot headquarters known as the “Tower of Truth” in downtown Philadelphia to a single floor of a former department store near Chinatown. Steacy took photos of both the old newsroom<\/a> and the new — and of everything in between, including most of the remaining staff, the paper’s old printers and the cluttered desks of various editors and reporters.<\/p>

\"Inquirer<\/a><\/p>

The new Inquirer<\/em> newsroom looks like somewhere a high-school paper would be produced, not a newspaper that serves a city of 1.5 million. And Steacy tells Wired<\/em> that when his father was laid off in 2011, he actually had to put the project on hold<\/a> because it became too emotional for him. He believes — as many do — that the future of journalism is a question mark as great newspapers like the Inquirer<\/em> continue to be downsized or even go bankrupt. As he puts it:<\/p>

“The internet, for lack of a better metaphor, makes up the branches of the tree. But newspapers have centuries-long traditions of being the roots of the tree. If the roots of tree rot and crumble the rest of the tree will fall with it.”<\/p><\/blockquote>

\"Inquirer<\/a><\/p>

Photos courtesy of Will Steacy<\/a><\/em><\/p>
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